FishVille limits how often you can send gifts to your neighbors. There is a simple method for getting around this limitation so that you can send more than 1 gift to your neighbor(s).

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Microsoft released the much anticipated Windows 7 OS to retail on Friday Oct 22, 2009.  The general consensus among the majority is that it is indeed a great OS and worth the upgrade (especially if you avoided Vista and are still on XP). Upgrades from XP and Vista to Windows 7 have been pretty smooth for the most part (minus the fiasco w/the Student Windows 7 upgrade problems).

This last weekend I finally clean installed Windows 7 Ultimate Edition Retail on my Wind and HP (prior to this I was running beta/rc versions of Windows 7).  I also received my Windows 7 license for my desktop and did another clean install (wiping vista right off) of Windows 7 on it.  Previous OS upgrades have taught me one thing; upgrading can/will bite you in the end.  I recommend backing up data and doing a clean install to avoid any possible issues that may crop up later down the road (ie driver incompatibilities, software that doesn’t work on Win7, crashing).  So my advice, if possible clean install.  Yes, its more work to start with but may save you some and frustration down the road.

After my installs were completed, the first thing i did was setup networking on the machines and in Windows 7 case, join a Homegroup. Keep reading for more info on my homegroups and media sharing experience.

Well, I’ve decided to blog on a more regular basis (at least once a week) and thought I’d start with a nice old op-ed piece on this years tech/geek news and trends and possible future ones.

Microsoft tries to redeem itself for Vista by accelerating development of Windows 7 and to everyone’s delight, it appeases most with its updated UI and performance.

Netbooks became a household name and have started to grow out of its own genre.  Nvidia Ion chips are now starting to appear in the latest netbooks ( Asus and HP were the first to offer) and seem to do a great job in playing back HD content.  Touchscreen are starting to appear more and more in both netbooks and normal laptops.

Add on top of that the prospects of Microsoft and Apple’s ‘new’ tablet offerings. Nintendo in spring of 2009, released its updated DS model the DSi (a touchscreen based portable console) to its category dominating DS Lite. Android devices started to finally hit market with HTC offering some very tasty hardware (HTC Hero, upcoming Leo) and Motorola making a comeback after its somewhat fall from fame (razr made and then broke them, moto q was a disaster) with the new Android based Cliq and Motoblur (both touchscreen/slider based phones).

Windows 7 teases us with the Surface Addon Pack that turns select multitouch touchscreen pcs/laptops/tablets into a mini Microsoft Surface.  Google announces its making its own OS for netbooks/devices. Apple updates its iPod lineup and releases the much anticipated Snow Leopard.

2009 sure seems to be the year of touch and user interfaces.

Cafe World uses a Buzz Rating for measuring customer opinion of your establishment. If they like it, your rating increases. If they have a bad experience, it will decrease. Having your food go bad or running out of food will definitely result in a bad experience for every customer that visits during your absence. If you are going to be away from the game for a while (going on vacation, having to get ready for exams, or just taking a long break) you should “close” your cafe to prevent any customers from entering the cafe and risking a bad rating.

You want to minimize the distance between the counters and the table so that the waiters will take minimal time in delivering the customers’ dishes. Wile this will work fairly well, there is a way for the dishes to be instantly served as soon as the waiter picks them up from the counter.

Cafe World limits how often you can send gifts to your neighbors. There is a simple method for getting around this limitation so that you can send more than 1 gift to your neighbor(s).

again, its been far too long since i’ve last posted. today i thought i’d just outline the basics on how to use your Windows 7, with proper hardware, to record live tv and also share with other Windows 7 computers on your network.  This will allow you to have a centralized tv recording computer/server that can also transcode and stream the tv to other clients in your Homegroup.

i plan to briefly go over what you need for hardware and how to setup Windows 7 to do this.

In Mafia Wars, Godfather points are used to purchase rare items, special upgrades, etc. If you find yourself just shy of being able to purchase that one special item, you can get an extra 5 Godfather points by following this quick tip.

If you want to increase the size of your mafia, but don’t have anymore Facebook friends who will play, you can easily add people to your mafia with them being one of your Facebook friends.

Each day tech-recipes gets a ton of comments. In fact, often the information that is left in the comments is more helpful that the original tutorial.  Like on many other popular web sites, spammers frequently try to use our comments to gain attention for their own websites.  Microsoft not only decided to spam our comments but is trying to steal our authors too?  Boo!  :)

microsoft, office, spam

(Lil) Farm Life limits how often you can send gifts to your neighbors. There is a simple method for getting around this limitation so that you can send more than 1 gift to your neighbor(s).

Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 7 (Win7) retail release on Oct 22, 2009 is a highly anticipated release compared to the disaster that was the Vista launch only 3 years prior.  Performance and GUI/UI changes have really helped Win7 grab the eye of most geek and computer user out there.  Most blogs and sites tout the performance boosts and the pretty os tweaks.  Me, i like Win7 for the improvements with Media Center.

keep reading for some quick notes and video of my wind and ps3 streaming tv from my main hp.

Even though your farmer is rather quick, you still have to wait as he walks around. By using this little cheat, you can plow, plant and even harvest much faster. It will cost you 300 coins upfront, but it’s a small price to pay for the increase in farming speed.

Farmville has a large amount of crops to choose from. Determining your goal for the crop (experience or coins) is key in deciding what you should be planting. Use the following suggestions combined with your desired harvest time to determine what crops to plant:

Mafia Wars limits how often you can send gifts to your friends. There is a simple method for getting around this limitation so that you can send more than 1 gift to your friend(s).

1. Go to Facebook and then access the Mafia Wars applicaton.

2. If you haven’t sent a gift recently, you should arrive at the page for choosing a free gift to send to your friends.

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Crazy Planets is a game where you make a planet your own, and take your friends with you on various space adventures. Here are a few tips I’ve picked up while playing the game.

Emoticons are used to express moods or facial expressions, such as a smile fb_smile.png or a frown fb_frown.png. To add some “feeling” to your Facebook Chat sessions, use these emoticons

Decorating your rooms is one of the great things about YoVille, but you will quickly get bored with dealing the flat and squarely shaped room designs. You can spice up your creation by using optical illusions and changing the perspective to give the impression of having a split level room complete with stairs.

Restaurant City is another popular and addictive Facebook game. You manage a restaurant and all that goes with that. I found quite a few tips early on but have learned some more along the way.

Barn Buddy limits how often you can send gifts to your friends. There is a simple method for getting around this limitation so that you can send more than 1 gift to your friend(s).